This morning I overslept and was late meeting E. and N. at Kiwi Basecamp for our roadtrip to Akaroa. Despite being late, E. still made me wait another 5 minutes before we were able to get on the road. The trip was N’s first chance to get out of Christchurch and see some of the New Zealand countryside. We drove through winding hills and past empty fields – there is so much space everywhere! Of course we stopped for pictures several times on the trip. Eventually we came over the top of the last hill and had an amazing view of the beautiful Akaroa harbour. Of course we stopped again for more pictures.
In Akaroa we went to the tourist information center to find out about boat trips on the harbour. After 20 minutes of waiting in a short line because of stupid tourists at the front, E. gave up and started calling boat operators himself. After two quick phonecalls we found our tour and went off to the Black Cat tour boat. We managed to even find an icecream between buying our tickets and walking to the boat.
The boat was obviously full of tourists and they even made each group stop for a photograph as they got on the boat so that they could try to sell it to them at the end of the trip. The three of us lowered the age average by at least 10 years. Besides a couple of children everybody seemed to be at least 60 years old. Of course I ended up sitting next to a German family. Trying to keep my focus on English is hard enough without people speaking German around me. Even without people speaking German around me I still accidentally say something in German every day.
On the trip we got to see Hector’s dolphins, blue penguins and a whole family of fur seals. It was fantastic to see the harbour and all the wonderful animals but I was so frustrated because I left big lens at home and couldn’t take the photos that I wanted to.
Afterwards we drove back to the city and I dropped N. at her new university and E. back at Kiwi Basecamp and headed back to Waikuku. The promised salsa night had been canceled and instead we had a little garden party. The people were nice and I was given a lesson in Kiwi slang and profanity. I had been angry at someone texting me earlier in the week when they said „sweet as“ because I thought they were being rude. I now know that „sweet as“ is a Kiwi way of saying „all good“. Also, I have a new favorite curse – „fucking wanker“.
